With A Stroke Of His Pen, President Obama Renders Hobby Lobby Ruling Obsolete

There is a phrase, “you’d complain if you were hung with a new rope” that loosely means there are some people that can never be satisfied regardless of the accommodations other people make for them. The phrase can also mean that the people who complain incessantly and can never be satisfied is because they cannot always have things their way. In 21st Century America, evangelical Republicans are those who demand it is “their way or the highway” and there is no greater example than the religious Republican crusade to control women’s reproductive health; or better put, to force every woman in America into being perpetual birth machines. Last year a wildly popular evangelical talking point to support their demand for control over American women was they would not tolerate any woman, married or single, having “consequence free sex;” restricting birth control was the religious right’s method of punishing women who failed to toe the evangelical line and remain celibate or perpetually pregnant.

The idea of Christian conservatives wielding control over women’s reproductive health was behind the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell lawsuit that the Vatican-5 on the Supreme Court decided was evangelical employer’s religious liberty to control women and prevent them from having consequence free sexual relations. According to the Catholic justices’ ruling, the Obama Administration ‘must‘ provide an accommodation for “religious” for-profit corporations and on Friday, President Obama did just that in response to the High Court’s decision. In fact, what President Obama did was effectively neuter the Hobby Lobby ruling and ensure that all women, even those employed by ‘religious corporations,’ will still have birth control covered at no cost to them; even if their evangelical employers object and refuse to provide it. The sad, unfortunate women who happen to work for a church, or place of worship though, are still bound to adhere to their employer’s religious edict that under no circumstances will they be allowed to have ‘consequence free’ sex.

The way the new rule is written, a religious corporation that refuses to allow their employees’ health plans to provide contraception will write a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and claim that their religious freedom demands they control women’s sexual activities. The HHS will then notify a third-party insurer that the company’s theocratic owners’ insist on controlling women and the third-party insurer will provide birth control coverage to the employees at no additional cost to the religious corporation or the female employees. The Secretary of the HHS released a statement saying that “Women across the country should have access to preventive services, including contraception. We recognize the deeply held views on these issues and are committed to securing women’s access to important preventive services at no additional costs while respecting religious beliefs.”
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There were already provisions and accommodations for religious non-profits in the contraception mandate within the Affordable Care Act, but Catholics were not satisfied and joined Hobby Lobby’s evangelical owners to sue the Administration. Their absurd religious beliefs informed them that all forms of contraceptives are abortion. Although the High Court conceded that according to all known medical and biological science birth control is in no possible way abortion, the Papal-5 ruled if that was the ‘deeply-held‘ view of the Vatican, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Christian corporations, then by dog birth control is abortion. The President’s “official” accommodation came just after a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down yet another evangelical attempt to control women’s sexuality and deny their access to basic reproductive healthcare.

The 5th Circuit’s ruling came down from an “ultraconservative judge,” Jerry Smith, who told a cabal of evangelical employers that if they insisted on restricting women’s reproductive choices by refusing to include contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans, they “had to submit letters to HHS” so their female employees could have a semblance of control over their own reproductive health. The evangelical employers, who are not houses of worship, religious non-profits, or churches, complained bitterly to the courts that if they were forced to submit a form to HHS, they would lose their control over women and they would “be allowed” to get the contraception coverage elsewhere. The ultra-conservative judge was not the least bit impressed or sympathetic to the bovine excrement religious liberty complaint and threw the evangelicals out of court.

Religious fanatics, and particularly Republican religious fanatics, are at the forefront of the war against any woman who believes they have a right to choose when they give birth. Republicans claim they are against abortions, but their only motivation in restricting women’s reproductive rights is forcing them to become birth machines or celibate. This was particularly the case in a state like Colorado where pro-life Republicans are livid because for the past six years when young and poor women were offered free long-acting birth control, the birthrate among teenagers fell a not-so-astounding 40 percent, and abortions plunged by 42 percent according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There were similar declines among unmarried women under 25 who had not finished high school. The results are incontrovertible that if religious right Republicans really want to reduce abortions and teen pregnancies, they would not restrict access to any contraception method.

The results of the past six years did not sit well with pro-life Republicans and evangelical groups like Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, who are pushing the Colorado Assembly to deny funding for the state program that was previously funded by a private grant and the reason is clear. Reducing the number of teen or unwanted pregnancies, or abortions, is not the driving force behind the evangelical Republican opposition to contraceptive services or abortion; controlling women’s sex lives and punishing them for having “consequence free” sex is whether they are married or single. The President’s Hobby Lobby fix, along with the contraception mandate in the ACA will go a long way to provide women with control over their reproductive choices.

Of course, evangelical Republicans in Congress have a different idea of allowing women to choose when they give birth and are crusading to restrict their options; particularly low income women. Republicans in Congress are crusading and on pace to abolish the Title X program that provides reproductive care for 4.6 million poor and low-income women. Republican Richard Nixon said Title X was created specifically to guarantee that “with broad bipartisan support we will provide adequate family planning services to all those who want them but cannot afford them.” Everything changed when B-movie actor and Republican demigod Ronald Reagan became president and granted the religious right unquestioned authority to control women’s lives.

Religious Republicans have demonstrated that they will continue complaining, and pushing Catholic dogmata in the Humanae Vitae, that they be allowed to exert authority over women’s sexuality and reproductive health choices. Just this week in Wisconsin, for example, at the urging of Governor Scott Walker, the religious Republican legislature passed an unconstitutional 20-week abortion ban with Walker’s express demand that included in the ban there is no exception for rape, incest, or life of the mother.

Earlier this year, Walker eliminated state and federal funding from nine of the state’s Planned Parenthood health centers; not to prevent unwanted pregnancies or abortions, but to control women. The funding elimination infuriated Republican state Senator Glenn Grothman because it did not completely eliminate family planning from Wisconsin entirely. Grothman said, “There’s a very ugly side to this organization, and I regret that they’re going to take such a tiny cut in this budget.” The ugly side, according to Grothman’s complaint and religious right ideology is that as long as there is even one family planning clinic in Wisconsin, some of the state’s women will not lose control over their reproductive choices.

Wisconsin was the fourth evangelical Republican state to defund the family planning provider after Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina did so and their intent was not to prevent unwanted pregnancies or abortions, but to control women and impose their evangelical edict that no woman, married or otherwise, will ever have “consequence-free sex,” control their own reproductive health, or choose when they give birth and start families.

In evangelical Republicans’ world, that control and those decisions are the purview of the religious right, Hobby Lobby’s owners, Focus on the Family, the personhood movement, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. As long as Barack Obama is President, women will have a firewall against yet another form of religious right tyranny to force them into celibacy or become perpetual birth machines which is the evangelical Republicans’ ultimate goal.

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ACA has made law a pseudoscience religion, that believes huge amounts of money is necessary to provide basic care like birth control. There is no reason why birth control and other basic care should cost so much you need insurance to pay for it.

Hyde amendment still denies military women control of our own bodies. That ability to control women soldier’s bodies is in large part responsible for the overt rape rape culture of the US Armed Forces. The Law says we’re not as ‘real.’

Until female military have their constitutional right to our own bodies confirmed by Federal Law, we will be relegated to inferior consideration of our authority. We will never be considered ‘real’ soldiers until we can sacrifice ourselves freely, without the paternal hand of the Congress demeaning our sacrifice.
To do that, you have to command your own flesh and blood. Including your eggs.

That would be wonderful! On the other hand, Democrats need Barack Obama (after his second term ends) to campaign for them in the coming years if we want to keep a Democrat in the White House, retake and keep the Senate, and retake and keep the House.

As a powerful community organizer, there simply is no other master-campaigner who can make that happen other than Barack Obama, and should he be nominated for the SCOTUS, he won’t be able to campaign for Democrats.

I am already getting withdrawal symptoms at the thought of Obama leaving the White House, no-one in the running can hold a candle to him, I feel sick when I turn on the TV and see one of them touting what they will do for America, I am scared of what they will do!
We must elect a democrat!

This is the most poorly written article in history. Christ. I support Obama. WHAT DID HE SIGN? To the author. Who, what, when, where and why. Opinion disguised as news is befuddling to a genius. Basic writing. Please try again.

Good for the President. But whatever happened to the media maintaining at least a semblance of impartiality by news “reporters”? For the most part, it’s just a scathing portion of your personal opinion.

What you have to remember brodie- is that those who call themselves “pro-life” aren’t really about being pro-life, they’re also pro-death penalty and pro-screw over the young unmarrieds who chose to keep the kid.

The author of this article has such an obvious bias i cannot glean any facts or details worth gleaning. In this current culture, statements like “Christians want women to be birth machines or celibate” is ridiculous and sarcastic to an extent that it removes any credibility of the article seriously. Christians still make up a large portion of the communities that we live in. The culture that most of us are accustom to is influenced by Christians. Author should try sticking to the facts, getting quotes, and other fundamental journalism. I really wanted waste my time listening to a personal rant, thanks.

This is not your typical editorialized opinion piece. This brings a whole new meaning to subjective editorialization.

Just in explaining how the new rule would work, this psycho author writes: “The HHS will then notify a third-party insurer that the company’s theocratic owners’ insist on controlling women and the third-party insurer will provide birth control coverage to the employees at no additional cost to the religious corporation or the female employees.”

Wow. Crazed much.

Never once did this author consider the fact that even without insurance, abortions are not cost prohibitive.

For patients not covered by insurance, a surgical abortion in a doctor’s office or a medical abortion at 10 weeks typically costs about $320 to $500. At 16 weeks, a surgical abortion costs about $500 to $700. At 20 weeks or later, a surgical abortion costs about $1,000 to $2,000 or more.

Thank you for your little canned screed, but this piece was not about abortion. It was about contraception… you know, something that *prevents* abortions. And $700 for anything might represent most of a worker’s monthly pay.

Obama’s order is at least consistent with the First Amendment, whereas, SCOTUS’s Hobby Lobby decision was not.

The Vatican five male justices voted in accordance with Roman Catholic canon law, and not the Constitution.

But at least one of the majority justices actually recommended the federal government doing what Obama just did. Alito said that the government should pay for contraceptive coverage. It sounds like SCOTUS might be amenable to a single payer health care system.

This is a liberal OPINION BLOG for Liberals; a place to separate the chaff from the wheat. It is in no way a part of the “news” media since U.S. news media is infiltrated by propagandists for the uber-wealthy and those who want to brainwash the masses in order to serve the wealthy.

If the latter is what you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong place, friend.

The Papal-5 have lost all pretense of judicial fairness and following the U.S. Constitution. If this country had any true morals and ethics and truly loved freedom, they’d demand the impeachment of those theocrats.

That’s why we need to ensure that a Democrat remains in the White House for at least the next decade, and the Senate is won back and remains with a Democratic majority for as long as it takes to replace at least two out of the three justices rumored to retire in the next decade. They must be replaced with American justices who actually believe in separation of Church and State, and who honor the U.S. Constitution rather than the Vatican.

While Hobby Lobby’s religious viewpoints are superstitious beliefs based upon religious documents created to preserve the political and economic power of the Christian Church and the political and economic leaders, until our society rejects religious superstitions everyone’s religious views must be treated equally

What a bunch of self-centered fascists writing HATE articles and posting replies here. If someone has a different viewpoint you are all for violating their rights and forcing your viewpoint and lifestyle on them.

You might as well put on your black uniforms with shiny black jack boots and red armband and force the people you disagree with on trains bound for concentration camps.Bugs Bunny was describing you with his comment “What a bunch of maroons!…

Maybe I am wrong, but have always felt neither Catholics or those of the Islamic faith accept any form of birth control comes out of the Crusades. Both sides I surmised wanted all the population they could get to assure they wouldn’t lose in another Crusades. Why women were frowned on if wanted birt control.

“The thing that really is trying to tyrannize through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is Science. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statues, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen—that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended in Eugenics. Materialism is really our established Church; for the government will really help it to persecute its heretics…I am not frightened of the word ‘persecution’…It is a term of legal fact. If it means the imposition by the police of a widely disputed theory, incapable of final proof—then our priests are not now persecuting, but our scientists are.”

It is, when you’re not wanting to bring life in. Perhaps you should try volunteering to carry one of those kids to term, that you’re so concerned about.
After all, by your own words- you’d be bringing life into this world.

If you folks were truly concerned about children and unborn kids- you’d not be cutting funds to W.I.C.!
If but one out of every ten so called Pro-lifers adopted one child in the U.S., we’d not have any kids in the foster care system. You know- put your money where your overly large mouths are?

Would you like Tea Bagger English? Or would you like something coherent?

There he fixed it for ya. Scurvy dog, phony conservatoids hiding behind your religion to cut costs. How do you like welfare now Hobby Lobby..compliments of the rest of us?.

OUR lawfully elected President- insured that the Lip-service Christians of Snobby Lobby cannot use religion to justify their unlawful intrusion into control of a woman’s body and what she chooses to do, or not do, with same.

I.E., H.L. has to put up with the same tiresome regulations that they’d prefer welfare folks endure.
Scurvy Dog- insult.
(1) A deficiency disease caused by lack of vitamin C, often afflicting sailors;
(2) A derogatory adjective for an epithet, as in “Ye scurvy dogs!”

I could almost, almost …comprehend the Right to ….ahem….Life’s attitude towards sex, if it was such that every time someone had sex, someone got preggers.

But the reality of the situation? Even leaving gay or other non-procreational sex on the wayside, there are untold millions of folks who have ‘been trying their best’ to make a baby, even well before the time of the Biblical Patriarch Abraham.
We have fertility drugs, and clinics, for those who WANT kids.
And we have these things, because the god or the so-called “intelligent’ designer, seems to be acting more like Loki, when it comes to bestowing children upon folks.

It’s funny how so many self-proclaim liberals and feminists criticize the GOP as full of misogynists and people who are out to control women’s reproductive rights instead of considering that some of them are just fighting to protect the rights of those who don’t want to be forced to assume the financial burden of supporting someone’s careless lifestyle.
Also, your support of Pres. Obama’s admin is laughable. Everything the Democrats and other left-wing activists condemned Bush about being a hawkish war monger, a corporate stooge in the pockets of big business, illegally imposing presidential decrees and infringing citizens’ civil rights pale in comparison to what Obama has imposed on the United States since he took office.Finally, you need to realize there is no practical difference between the Democrats and Republicans-they are just different pockets in the same pair of pants. The same billionaires, big banks, big pharma, big defense contractors fund and own both parties